Foam for lens case

[Bob Salomon]

Alum skins would have automatically isolated any nasties in the ply, except at the cut edges, where presumably a sealant would be used if waterproofing were to be realistic. I've never owned anything Rimowa, but have made things like that in my own shop. Nowadays it would make more sense to use ultralight honeycomb aluminum to begin with; but that's tricky to fabricate without specialty equip (which I sold). Injected urethane foam inherently degrades over time if either air or moisture gets to it. In deep-fill situations, like waterproofing significant voids in boats while still retaining buoyancy, the degredation progresses only so far then tends to cap itself off. Fiberglass hulls help. All urethane decomposes except the moisture-cure varieties, which are an entirely different category of applications, including TRUE marine sealants. Ironically, ABS cases like Pelican can easily break if dropped on a hard surface in very low temps. ABS can go brittle unless it has air-cell inner core construction like thick ABS drainage pipe.

When Pelican was first introduced I was their rep in NJ, the Hudson Valley and E. PA.

I sold the first order to a store in N NJ and the owner placed it in their window. The window was one of those old fashion bow type with display area and doors that closed inside. After about two weeks the dealer called me to come look at the window display. Inside that window area, which had several hours of sunlight a day, the top of the Pelican case was strongly warped!
I had to authorize a return for his entire shipment!

[gnd2]

Well now I'm kind of freaking out. After seeing what out-gassing does to the inside of my car windshield, I definitely don't want that happening to my camera gear. I did do the plastidip trick to the pelican foam which I suppose will help it stay together a little better but I don't expect it to help with out-gassing.

One of the first things that came up in a google search for camera storage was a wine refrigerator like thing: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/searc...op+Nav-Search= I don't know if I need to go that far.

Other than that, google mostly just returns a whole lot of "I store it in a case with foam" to wade through

Starting to think that the wood + felt that Bernice mentioned might be the way to go.

[Ulophot]

Reading this thread sent me hastening to my camera bags. I guess it's time to chime in here with questions, having both added some foam padding to my various camera bags and made a customized lens cradle from thick grey cardboard and somewhat stiff 3/16" foam for my 210. I'll remake the latter and replace the foam with a couple of layers of felt, and do something similar for a thick pad I made to support the lens on my 35mm rangefinder, allowing the camera to be stored on one end without falling forward.

It doesn't hurt to ask the experts: I had received in a shipment some years back some unusual foam that I had cut and placed for extra padding under my medium-format lenses in the relevant bag. The foam is charcoal grey, a little more than a half-inch thick, extremely fine texture and firmly spongy, somewhat like memory foam but without the retaining impression, with completely smooth surfaces top and bottom, one of which is shiny. Is this likely to be an out-gasser, too? I'd like to add a bit of shock protection to the bottom of the bag, an old Domke F2. Perhaps the cotton batting mentioned in a post above? Or just several layers of felt?

Also, the felt I find in squares at the fabric store is hardly like a Crown Royal bag. It's much coarser and gives the impression that fibers might come loose, which gives me pause. Is there a particular name for the better stuff?

Last, I know glues have been addressed before, but, for gluing felt to board, is Elmer's white glue or similar, OK?

Thanks.

[HMG]

If buying foam, go to a custom upholstery place. That foam is made to last years; though there are still different grades. Don't know about outgassing.

The best hard case are those old Samsonite style suit cases. Stong, cheap at 2nd hand stores. And who in their right mind would steal them. The squarish cosmetic cases might work well for lenses.

[John Kasaian]

After drinking enough Crown to clothe all your lenses in those little bags, this will become a moot issue

[Drew Wiley]

DONT go to an upholstery place. Go to an industrial supplier like McMaster and read the spec page. Don't read the prices or the only thing you'll ever carry in a case again is a personal defibrillator. There are aerospace foams if you want them - pure high-temp silicones. I use em for gasketing in high wattage colorheads. There are all kinds of rubber blends, some bad, some worse. Vinyl needs plasticizers which outgas. Lots of furniture stuffing is "supposed to have" fire retardant. It easily decomposes around long term humidity. I use plain ole polyethylene sandwich bags and bubble wrap - inert,dirt cheap and easy to replace.

[alfredian]

U-Line warehouse/shipping products & gear outfit has excellent options. I bought a couple of cases of their "plank" packing material. This is "closed-cell" foam, not the usual pillow & sponge material. I is a totally different inert polymer with "closed bubbles" so it isn't a "sponge". Comes in a variety of thicknesses. I have some of the 1/2" thick (16" square) which comes with peel-off paper on the back, revealing stickum. Also got a case of 1" think (24" square), plain, no stickum. Got a couple of rolls of double-sided tape 2" wide. I built my custom-carry case for my Karona 7x17 as well as padding cheapo book backs or mil-type backpacks for my various other wooden field cams. Just did a $30 Rothco pack with the 1" for a Chamonix 4x10. It trims to any size/shape with a sheetrock/box knife & cuts very easily & cleanly. I will probably use it to set up a tote back (Husky? Rothco?) with some sockets for Domke-wrapped lenses.

At any rate, check out U-Line's catalog/website. Also got a lot of industrial-grade wire shelving for house & home. --alfredian

[Nodda Duma]

Drew has a good recommendation to visit McMaster Carr. That’s usually the first source to look for hardware for engineers at work... think Lowes or Home Depot but for engineers who get paid to design cutting edge technology. Like what Digikey is for Elec Engs

The felt I’ve seen lining optical instrument cases ranged from green felt like for pool tables (common for Nikon instruments and Zeiss stuff too iirc) to gray/mixed long hair wool felt (Davidson Optronics and other US suppliers). My machinist bubble level has green felt lining too.

Come to think of it, regarding foam, Edmund optics and other lens suppliers often pack lens kits into wood boxes with a very tight relatively unyielding closed cell foam for shipping. I’ve always pulled the lenses right out after receiving but I do have a kit that’s been in the case undisturbed for at least 10 years. If I remember I’ll take a look.

[NW2Wheeler]

To All who have replied,
A hearty thank you for your input - it has been most useful.
Actually, several question that I was pondering have been spoken too.

As an aside, does anyone know of a source for the hard plastic cases that the Fujinon CM-W lenses came in, without buying a lens